Theater critic John Corbin lamented the rise of the anti-hero on the stage in 1917:

“Clever trickery wins delighted applause, while the ancient law, moral as well as statutory, is scorned and derided. The phenomenon is interesting and rather disquieting… Like government, the drama is best when it is of the people, by the people, and for the people. As the literary critics say, it should portray the life and express the mood of its time. Yet the American drama of today has largely reversed Lowell’s apothegm. It pays to call old notions fudge and bend our conscience to our dealing. The Ten Commandments love to budge, and fortune ever follows stealing.”

Corbin surely would not approve of many modern-day critics’ ranking of The Godfather as the greatest film of all time.

Shifting Tastes of the Theatergoers: Decline of European Influence Has Been Followed By “the Sub-American Drama,” with East Side Flavor Dominant and Crooks as Leading Characters

From Sunday, September 30, 1917